ACLU and EFF Protest the Constitutionality of Williamson County Schools’ Technology Policy

By Michelle Goldring – Edited by Jesse Goodwin

The ACLU of Tennessee and EFF wrote a letter to the superintendent and board of Williamson County Schools in response to its new technology policy. The letter raises concerns about portions of the policy that would limit students’ right to freely use social media even when outside the school and would permit students’ devices to be searched with few restrictions, in violation of students’ First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The State of Delaware adopted the Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act which will give personal representatives, custodians and trustees access to the digital accounts of a deceased person. The Act, which comes into effect on January 1, 2015, aims to reduce existing hurdles which surviving family members and attorneys face in disposing with the deceased person’s digital assets.

On October 11, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Inc. (“ACLU”) filed a joint brief in the U.S. Court Of Appeals, urging that “trademark laws should not be used to impinge the First Amendment rights of critics and commentators”. The brief argues that the use of the names of organizations to comment, critique, and parody, is constitutionally protected by the speaker’s First Amendment right of freedom of expression.